BEETLES ARE MAKING SUMMER A HARD DAY'S NIGHT

DEBORAH HORNBLOW; Courant Staff WriterTHE HARTFORD COURANT

There is Beatlemania -- the type that stirs in Fab Four fans when Paul McCartney releases a new album, as he did earlier this summer. Then there is beetlemania, the type that drives even mild-mannered green thumbs to curse the heavens and consider strong chemicals when summer produces an invasion of hungry, hard-shelled insects.

This year, as some Connecticut gardeners have unhappily discovered, is a banner one for two voracious insects: the Japanese beetle and the lily leaf beetle.

Daylily varieties are safe from the bright red bugs. It's Asiatic lilies -- the tall stalky ones -- that are being attacked, with foliage, petals and buds stripped. "The beetles defoliate the lily plants, including the buds," says Pettinelli. "The worst thing about them is they lay eggs on the plants and the eggs hatch into grublike larvae that feed on the bottoms of leaves. They cover themselves in their own excretion so birds don't want to eat them."

Lily leaf beetles are a relatively new addition to the Connecticut garden scene, having arrived in the state five years ago from the South.

"There could be a whole host of reasons why [the beetles are in Connecticut]," says Robert Durgy, horticultural diagnostician at UConn's Department of Plant Science. Lily leaf beetles first appeared in Massachusetts and then worked their way down into the Nutmeg State, he says. "The insects could have been transported by plants grown in the South and brought here," Durgy says. Some blame climate change and higher temperatures for making the region hospitable to lily leaf beetles; others point to recent mild winters.

Also bothersome to plant lovers this summer is the more common Japanese beetle, which is a lot less fussy about what it eats.

"The problem with Japanese beetles is they have over 300 acceptable host plants. That's an extremely high number of hosts," says Durgy.

Most insects are particular about what they nibble, but the Japanese beetle, in all stages of its life, "seems to want your garden plants for dinner," says Pettinelli. Among favorite foods are rose bushes; vegetables including beans, tomatoes and corn; and trees including all fruit trees, lindens and birches.

For green thumbs, the beetles' presence can be discouraging.

"They feed on flowers, they eat the petals. The flowers get ruined and it's depressing," says Durgy.

The infestations seem to be localized. "Some people are reporting extremely high numbers, but me personally, in my garden, it's the same as other years," he says.

Ridding the garden and trees of beetles can be done several ways. If the numbers are manageable, both Durgy and Pettinelli use good old-fashioned elbow grease. "I hand-pick Japanese beetles off into a jar of soapy water," says Durgy. "They don't fly away. They raise up their two legs, that's what they do for protection. If a bird goes to bite them, they jab at them. But you can tap the bugs and they roll off into the jar."

If insect numbers are too daunting for hand-picking or you don't have time, bag-a-bug catchers are effective, but they come with a caution. "The bag-a-bug catchers have a pheromone component to them," says Durgy. "Their lures are strong, and they can lure from farther away than your own lawn. You can attract beetles from your neighbors' yards. The bag-a-bugs catch a lot of beetles, but put the bag as far away from your garden as possible, away from plants you're trying to protect."

Pesticides -- both chemical and organic -- also have drawbacks. "Many people prefer to use organics because they are often -- but not always -- a more environmentally friendly option," says Pettinelli. But "organics must be reapplied each time it rains" or each time the plant is doused by the sprinkler.

Chemical and natural pesticides should never be applied to plants when the temperatures are 85 degrees or above, says Pettinelli. "Apply it in the cooler evening or morning hours. Sometimes the heat combined with the pesticide can injure leaves."

Trees can be treated with foliar or leaf-protecting sprays or systemic agents administered through the tree's roots, says Mike DeSanto, an arborist and entomologist with Bartlett Tree Experts of Stamford. DeSanto, who is based in Simsbury, says he hasn't seen any beetle infestations this year, but homeowners who have may apply their own treatments or call a service such as Bartlett's.

If DeSanto had beetles in his own trees, he would be inclined to let nature run its course, unless the number of insects was high. "A lot of beetles on a tree could be significant," DeSanto says, especially if the tree is young and in danger of complete defoliation. But on larger trees, "most of the time it's aesthetic damage," he says. "On a large linden tree, [beetles would] make the lower canopy look aesthetically displeasing. Is that worth spraying? For some people it is, for some it's not. It depends on what their aesthetic threshold is."